Bill Belichick Appears to Take Shot at Kraft Family Ahead of UNC Debut

"There's no owner. There's no owner's son."

Kraft and Belichick are butting heads once again. / Eric Canha-Imagn Images

It's been pretty much the exact opposite of sunshine and rainbows ever since Bill Belichick and the Patriots parted ways two Januarys ago.

New England endured yet another 4–13 season, is onto their second head coach in two years, and enters 2025—even after a free agency spending spree—with a bottom-tier roster in the NFL.

Belichick, meanwhile, failed to land a job in the pros in '24, has since resorted to becoming the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels—a middling ACC program—and is now taking shots at his former boss Robert Kraft and his son, Jonathan.

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“It’s a much more cohesive, and I’d say unified, view of what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it,” Belichick told The Boston Globe's Ben Volin this week, speaking about the differences between coaching in the NFL vs. college. “It’s a lot of football, and there’s not much in your way."

"There’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son," he continued. "There’s no cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I’m all for that. But it’s way less of what it was at that level."

The Saga Continues

This isn't the first time the two sides have traded blows since their breakup. After Kraft told the Dudes on Dudes podcast with Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski last month that he took a "big risk" hiring Belichick back in 2000, the coach clapped back, telling ESPN that is was him who actually took the risk:

"As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head coaching job," Belichick told Don Van Natta Jr. in July. "I already had an opportunity to be the head coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation was unstable."

Long story short, there hasn't been much amiability since the two sides "amicably" parted ways. The 73-year-old didn't even mention Kraft in his new book.

Something tells me there won't be a Belichick statue at Gillette Stadium anytime soon.

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